The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 15, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

A picture book inspired by Enersen’s popular blog, which features artistic and whimsical photographs of her daughter, Mila.

The narrative begins, “These are Mila’s dreams.” Each page spread that follows features a photograph of a sleeping Mila with fabrics and household items arranged around her to create a scene intended to represent her dreams and an accompanying explanation. For example, a photograph of Mila in which she sleeps atop a fabric skyscraper and grasps a tiny car in her hand is accompanied by the following text: “When my baby dreams of being big… / she grows tall enough to take over the city.” In the next photo, sleeping Mila is placed on a black background filled with stars made of aluminum foil and a couple of colorful planets. A paper plate behind Mila’s head makes her look like an astronaut. In this dream, she is “gigantic enough to conquer the universe.” It is not surprising that Enersen’s quirky, creative photographs trough a large audience to her blog. The babies and preschoolers, however, for whom this book was presumably designed, will likely find much less appeal in this series of photos of one sleeping baby. The prose serves primarily to transition between photos and is also likely to appeal much more to parents than to their little ones.

Not the first book for adults to masquerade as a children’s book, but one of the more interesting. (Picture book. 4-8)

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